Tag Archives: gordon hayward

One of the many beautiful stone walls at Guilford Sound, in neighboring Guilford, VT. Torben Larsen, of Windham Growers has been doing amazing stone work there for the past 7 years. We are fortunate to be able to capture some of his talents at Stonehurst this month where he’ll be creating stone pathways and landscaping.

Earlier this month I posted about Gordon Hayward, the landscape architect who is helping us bring our vision for the “Stonehurst Experience” into reality. We want Stonehurst to be a peaceful refuge where customers seeking natural, eco-friendly wood furniture can come and relax in the foothills of Vermont’s Green Mountain Forest.

Beautiful, handmade furniture is just one part of the Stonehurst experience. The other part is immersion in the lush green forest where wood furniture originates. In order to provide access to the forest, we’ve turned to Torben Larsen of Windham Growers. Torben is Southern Vermont’s go-to guy for top quality stonework and landscaping.

Sights and sounds from the recording studio campus at Guilford Sound. Clockwise from upper left: a slate sphere made from recycled roof tiles by Torben Larsen of Windham Growers, the Recording Studio, an outdoor dining area and amphitheater and Torben Larsen and Gorden Hayward discussing landscape and hardscape plans for Vermont Woods Studios.

Since we don’t have photos of stonework at Stonehurst yet, I thought I’d show you some of Torben’s work at Guilford Sound, an amazing, world class recording studio, hidden in Guilford, VT the next town over. Torben’s wife Cynthia who manages the studio at Guilford Sound was nice enough to show us the inside of the facility. Gordon and Torben toured us through the gardens, ponds, streams and forest. What a place! Check them out on Facebook.

Well, now that the exterior painting of Stonehurst (Vermont’s newest fine furniture and art gallery) is almost done (pictures to follow later this week), it’s time to look into landscaping. We were fortunate to be able to persuade Brattleboro’s best painters (Moe Momaney and crew) to help us out and they in turn recommended the area’s most admired landscaper. That would be Gordon Hayward of Hayward Gardens.

Annette, Douglas and I met with Gordon the other day and roughed out a few preliminary sketches. Boy are they different from our previous plans! Gordon got here just in the nick of time.

At the moment, designing the ADA accessible walkway into the front of Stonehurst is the main dilemma we’re facing. We all envision a lovely, traditional Vermont stone pathway, constructed by a skilled stone mason using Goshen stone. Jeremy Coleman, the Stonehurst architect has already laid the pathway foundation with the proper gentle slope to make wheelchair access easy. The problem is that in the winter, it’s hard to snow-blow a stone-inlaid path and Ken’s afraid that over time the walkway will become bumpy and difficult for wheelchair access.

Before talking to Gordon we had decided to pave the walkway and stamp it so it looks like Goshen stone. Well, both Jeremy and Gordon feel like all the work we’ve done in making sure Stonehurst is authentic will be compromised by paving the entrance. They are certain that Goshen stone can be properly laid such that it will stay level and intact for smooth wheelchair access.

What do you think? Gordon is coming over tomorrow to continue our landscaping project. You can put your 2 cents in on our Fine Furniture Facebook page. And I’ll keep you updated here on the blog.